BROCCOLI & CABBAGE

This is a blog about starting seeds (not proofing them).  I begin with a ditty that isn't very witty.

Gardening, in retrospect,

Scary thoughts, oh heck,

Nothing planted since last year,
This is a disaster, I fear.

No planting green veggie plants,
Because of ground hogs, we can't,
They hide and patiently in wait,
For the delicacy, better than cake.

The Broccoli,  almost ready for harvest,
They think we've made a personal request,
During the early morning hours,
They've scheduled their time to devour,

The Vegetable we love best.

We are getting ready finally to garden, or try.  We are very late so we will not be proofing the brassicas seeds.  We are going to take pot luck and place several seeds in each container.  If they grow they grow.  We start our seeds in an "incubator".  Then we trans plant them into small pots.

The following blogs are what we do every year to get our plants growing and ready for the garden.

http://organicinstlouis.blogspot.com/2013/02/broccoli.html

http://organicinstlouis.blogspot.com/2012/02/cabbage-and-broccoli-on-move.html

http://organicinstlouis.blogspot.com/2012/02/seeds-sprouted.html

Now for the incubator.  It is a simple affair using a Styrofoam box, a yogurt maker, piece of cardboard, a thermometer of some kind (I use an old outdoor one.)  I find the yogurt makers at the resale shops.  They have become scarce the last couple of year.  I guess, the  making yogurt has gone out of fashion.

Cut a hole in the side of the box at the base.  This is for the plug from the yogurt making to go through.  Put the yogurt maker inside (without its lid) you only need the bottom part of the maker with the heating element in it.

Now cut your cardboard the size you need to lay on top of the yogurt maker (fit it side to side and end to end in the Styrofoam box, on top the yogurt maker. The cardboard is cut the size of the interior and then you cut slots about 1/2 inch wide cut in it (this is to let the warmth rise into the chamber).  It is the shelf to place your plant containers on.

Place a thermometer in it (not over a vent hole) and turn it on.  Put the lid on tight, give it a couple of hours to warm up and then check the temperature.  You want it to hover around 80 degrees.  If it is higher open the lid a half inch and check it in two hours.  fiddle with the lid until you know how your incubator holds the heat.  You might want to open the lid even wider if it stays too warm.

Hopefully this will be a year we put supper on the table.
I love cooking from the cabinet loaded with items we have grown.

Other blogs by me:

http://glosgarden.blogspot.com/

Where I have stories of my cats and other pets

a blog about my courtship with my husband,

and a blog about my most embarrassing moment.

A "Soap box" blog where I do air my opinions.

http://pitbulladog.blogspot.com/

Blogs about our pair of pitbulls.

http://gloriouscreations.blogspot.com/

A Blog mostly about quilting and sewing, but you'll find recipes and gardening too.

All recipes, pictures, and writings are my own.

I give credit for items which belong to other people in my blogs .

Please do not copy without permission 

CABBAGE AND BROCCOLI ON THE MOVE.

Today, Feb. 29, 2012, our cabbage and broccoli seedlings out grew their nursery. 
The following is the blog of their birth.
http://organicinstlouis.blogspot.com/2012/02/seeds-sprouted.html
 It was moving time.  We have different sizes of the Styrofoam planting trays.  We move the plants up to the next size.  It has been at least 8 years since we purchased our trays.  I don't remember who made them.  I do remember they were $5.00 each (that was wholesale).  I was worried it would be a wasted expense.  This wasn't the case.  They have more than earned their keep.

The following site has some trays which are very similar to ours. 
Ours have square holes instead of the round ones.
http://www.quickstartgardensupplies.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_id=23

The trays are supposed to keep the roots either cool or warm.  In other words, keep the temperature from extreme fluctuations.  The trays are designed to be placed on rails so the drainage holes are open to the air.  The circulating air stops root growth through the holes, effectively root pruning the plants.  It encourages the roots to develop and fill the planting hole. 

The seedling to the left was planted in a soilless mix with no supplemental feeding.  It is 10 days old.  The temps in the room where it was at were at about 63 degrees.

The root development is perfect.  I never have this nice of roots when I use other trays or containers. 

This is a very strong plant  and will be very successful when transplanted.  Not susceptible to moving shock.

This picture shows the small cells the plant came from and the cells it will be transplanted to.  You can see the second set of leaves. 

The plants have been under 3 sets of shop lights.  They are positioned with their leaves within a half inch of the light source.  They are regular fluorescent bulbs except for one bulb which is the full spectrum bulb.  We found when we used all full spectrum bulbs we didn't get the stocky growth we wanted.  They tended to be spindly.

I transplanted all cabbages and broccoli.  I will keep their same numbers throughout the growing cycle.

                                                                                                  Feb.     29   

1.  Gurney's 2007 "HYBRID PACKMAN BROCCOLI"   Destroyed any sprouts,  due to poor germination/stunting

     http://gurneys.com/

2.  Shumway 2007 "GREEN GOLIATH BROCCOLI"       Destroyed any sprouts,  due to poor germination/stunting

     http://www.rhshumway.com/

3.  Gurney's 2007  " HYBRID CORONADO CROWN"     Destroyed any sprouts,  due to poor germination/stunting

    http://gurneys.com/

4.  Henry fields 2009 "PREMIUM CROP BROCCOLI" Destroyed any sprouts,  due to poor germination/stunting

     http://www.henryfields.com/

5.  Henry Fields 2007 "ARCADIA BROCCOLI"                                  36     

    http://www.henryfields.com/

6.  Totally Tomatoes 2010 "RUBY PERFECTION CABBAGE"          24
     http://www.totallytomato.com/

7  Baker Creek " EARLY JERSEY WAKEFIELD CABBAGE"           17

    2012  http://rareseeds.com/ 

8  Baker Creek " EARLY JERSEY WAKEFIELD CABBAGE"            20

    2012  http://rareseeds.com/  

Feb 29:  All plants were installed in their new cells.  I used the soilless mix  by 1/2 weight and the other half was a mixture of equal parts: dried sifted manure, compost, rice hulls, and garden soil.  after the plants were planted they were watered in with fish emulsion (1 TBS to 1 gallon well water).  Left is the flat with the plants.

For more blogs by me visit at:

http://gloriouscreations.blogspot.com

A blog mostly about quilting, but cooking, poetry, prose and a little gardening,

http://glosgarden.blogspot.com/

Not a garden blog.  There are articles which have nothing to do with creating or gardening. 

There are blogs on the new born baby kittens we found and are mothering.  It is a blog where I will sometimes voice my opinions which will always be environmentally friendly.

As always, any pictures or writings are my own, if not credit will be given to the contributor. Please do not use without permission.

 

CABBAGE AND BROCCOLI SEED STARTING

Published February 16

Notes at the bottom of the blog are color coded to the date they were observed.

Edits and additions February 18, 2012

Edits and additions February 20, 2012

Edits and additions February 22, 2012

Edits and additions February 28, 2012

If any thing will give you an adrenalin rush, seeing seeds sprout will (at least it gives me a rush).  Sunday afternoon we put cabbage seeds and broccoli seeds in a seed flat.  The flat has 242 cells in it.  It is Styrofoam so the soil temps stay even.  We use a soilless mix for starting seeds.  Using the soilless mix lessens the probability of damp off.

We planted this flat on Sunday February 12.  The soilless mix was warm when we put it in the cells.  It was gently packed and the seeds were dropped into holes poked by a chop stick.  Then they were covered with mix.  We covered the flat with Plastic wrap.  It was place in a room with a temperature of 63 degrees.  I have been checking them everyday and on February 16,  I was rewarded with sprouting.  We planted 7 varieties of seeds.  Some of them were old seeds.  


We numbered the edge of the tray (see the above photo).  We kept a row free between each variety.  We didn't want to have any mix up of seeds and plants when transplanted (this has happened before!).  I hate not knowing what we are planting.

The seeds in the photo on the left are Early Jersey Wakefield from Bakers Creek.

Because the planting medium was very moist I did not water in the seeds.  Today when I uncovered the sprouting flat I watered all cells (I have found when the empty cells are not watered too, the cells seem to dry out faster.)  I found the best thing for watering the cells.  A spice jar with a lid which has holes in it.  I used one which also had the flap you close over the holes.  When I went to water them with it, it was so easy.  I just pushed on the flap and it let out a little water at a time.  Each cell was able to be watered without washing any of the contents of the cells out with too much water.  BTW..under the flat we have newspaper on plastic. 

The trays are designed for green house seed starting.  They are supposed to be set on runners exposing the bottom of the tray.  When the roots grow down to the drainage hole the air stops them from growing out, effectively root pruning them.)  It makes them set more roots for a stronger transplant.  We will put the trays up on a 1/2 inch board so we can get the same effect.

Why are we starting them so early?  The weather in the St. Louis area has been very mild.  If it continues we will be able to plant early.  If not and we get a bad streak of weather we have the cold frame/green house.  So far the rosemary plants and Devils backbone are still alive and the banana plants seem to still have plenty of life.

List of Seeds planted, the numbers correspond to the numbers on the tray pitured above:

The older seeds were planted 2 in each cell. There can be 44 seedlings of each variety.

The colored numbers are how many that sprouted.  I was thrilled to see sprouts after four days.

                                                                                                            FEB 16       18     20     22    28
1.  Gurney's 2007 "HYBRID PACKMAN BROCCOLI"             22 cells   0         0        0       1       2
     http://gurneys.com/

2.  Shumway 2007 "GREEN GOLIATH BROCCOLI"                22 cells   0         0        0       5       18
     http://www.rhshumway.com/

3.  Gurney's 2007  " HYBRID CORONADO CROWN"             22 cells    0         0        0       2        5
    http://gurneys.com/

4.  Henry fields 2009 "HYBRID PREMIUM CROP BROCCOLI"22 cells  2      32      41      43       42
     http://www.henryfields.com/

5.  Henry Fields 2007 "ARCADIA BROCCOLI"                       22 cells    11      35     36      37       36
     http://www.henryfields.com/

6.  Totally Tomatoes 2010 "RUBY PERFECTION CABBAGE"  22 cells   1      21     21      26       24
     http://www.totallytomato.com/

7  Baker Creek " EARLY JERSEY WAKEFIELD CABBAGE"   22 cells    7     16     16      16       17
    2012  http://rareseeds.com/  1 seed per cell

8  Baker Creek " EARLY JERSEY WAKEFIELD CABBAGE"   22 cells    6     17     19      21        21
    2012  http://rareseeds.com/  1 seed per cell
I received my order from Baker Creek in less than 5 days.   I was impressed with the lovely packaging.

February 18:  The number of sprouts showing includes the sprouts from the 16th.  I am disappointed the top 3 haven't shown any sign of growth yet.  The Green Goliath broccoli is quite productive in the garden with huge heads.  I will have to order new seed for fall production. 

February 20:  Yesterday It was one week since we planted the seeds.  The first three have shown no sign of germination. 

The picture on the right is the seedlings today.  The seed was planted on February 12.  The cells are 1 inch square.  The seedlings are 1 1/4 inches high. 

February 22:  I had a surprise when I went to count the seedlings.  The first three are showing some activity.  It is only a couple but it does show some hope.  The seeds packets say 6 to 10 days..and it was 10 days  today..maybe some more will sprout.

February 28:  The second set of leaves are showing on the sprouted seeds.  when I counted I seem to have come up with an under count on several varieites.  I didn't notice any dying so I could have miscounted before.  I will take a picture of them tomorrow before I transplant them (recounting them at the time.)  

The late growing sprouts will, of course, stay in the flat.  Those which have germinated don't look so "well".  some of them look stunted.  #2 seeds do have some healthy looking sprouts. 

Now to make plans to catch the ground hog who will be enjoying the fruits of our labors

if we don't catch him.

For more blogs by me visit at:

http://gloriouscreations.blogspot.com

A blog mostly about quilting, but cooking, poetry, prose and a little gardening,

New blog, tutorial on how to make 5 panel Boxer Shorts.

New Blog about dolls.

http://glosgarden.blogspot.com/

Not a garden blog.  There are articles which have nothing to do with creating or gardening. 

There are blogs on the new born baby kittens we found and are mothering.  It is a blog where I sometimes voice my opinions which will always be environmentally friendly.

As always, any pictures or writings are my own, if not credit will be given to the contributor.
Please do not use without permission.